Treliving busy, but nothing ‘imminent’ on trade front

Treliving busy, but nothing \u2018imminent\u2019 on trade frontBrad Treliving has been active leading into the 2014 NHL Draft

We’ve been busy in terms of a lot of phone calls right now. I feel real good in terms of where the staff’s at but nothing to report of anything that’s imminent by any stretch but we’re continuing to work it. - Brad Treliving

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- The options are there for Brad Treliving, but the Calgary Flames general manager is waiting for something that makes sense.

Though he’s burning through minutes and data trying to negotiate some last-minute deals before the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft gets underway Friday, nothing is close to being finalized.

“We’ve been busy in terms of a lot of phone calls right now,” Treliving said. “I feel real good in terms of where the staff’s at but nothing to report of anything that’s imminent by any stretch but we’re continuing to work it.

"It's an interesting market. There are a lot of teams that want to do stuff. You can tell by the number of deals, there hasn't been a lot done. The closer you get tomorrow at 7 p.m., I think you'll see things pick up.”

Sitting with the fourth overall selection, Treliving has plenty of options to explore in his first draft at the helm of the Flames. He can opt to build a package around the pick to trade up into the top-3. Likewise, he can deal the pick, slide down a bit and pick up an extra asset or two.

As the draft quickly approaches, both scenarios are becoming more realistic, he admitted.

“I think there are opportunities,” Treliving said. “In both scenarios it’s ‘what’s the cost’. It’s like any negotiation. With each hour, we’re getting closer to the start of the draft and that usually brings out offers that people are willing to do. We’ll see.

“It’s busy. Everybody’s active right now. These are calls that started when I got here at the end of April. You start the process. It’s going to be busy right up until the horn goes tomorrow night.”

Those aren’t the only two options for Treliving, either.

With five picks in the opening three rounds of the draft and careful to call any player on his roster untouchable, the GM has plenty of opportunity to explore the option of picking up another selecting in the opening round.

But he’s not the only GM in the league testing those waters, either.

“Everybody’s doing the same thing,” Treliving said. “Their staffs are here so you’ve gone through the preparation and guys are phoning and everything from draft stuff in terms of move-ups, move-downs, you’re talking about players now. I said before we came out, an interesting wrinkle is the whole courting period or this interview period from a free agent’s perspective.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of people and that will continue today and right through tomorrow.”

The first shoe has yet to drop in terms of a move.

Regardless of whether one does or not, Treliving is ready.

“There are a lot of scenarios,” he said. “I think there are a lot of different scenarios just with the first pick. I think things can change with each player that comes off. It hasn’t changed for me. The good news coming into Philadelphia, and it gets busy here, it’s like doing a test. If you’re prepared, you sleep well the night before the test. If you’re not prepared you don’t probably sleep too well. We’re prepared.

“Coming in here, a lot of the things that have been discussed and a lot of the opportunities are things we’ve discussed prior to. Nothing we’ve put on our to-do list has come our way yet. There’s a lot of time yet.”

What isn’t likely to change between now and then is who Treliving is hoping to call to the stage.

He’s got his list.

“Oh I've got a guy. I've got a couple guys,” he said.

“There's more than one that I like. The good news is we're going to get one, for sure. If we can get more than one, we're going to try, but realistically, I don't know. You start to look at those second-round players, there's a group of players that we really like that, depending on the flow, could fall to us.